Category : Global

LYON: France's highest court confirmed on Wednesday that the former archbishop of Lyon, Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, did not cover up the sexual abuse of minors by a predator priest. The ruling by the Court of Cassation closes a long, emotional drama that brought angst to the Roman Catholic Church, under scrutiny around the world for hiding abuse by its clergy. The Court of Cassation agreed with an appeals court that ruled the nine victims who filed suit against Barbarin some five years ago could have directly filed a complaint against the now-defrocked priest, Bernard Preynat. The victims, all then readmore

BROOKLYN CENTER: A prosecutor said Wednesday that he will charge a white former suburban Minneapolis police officer with second-degree manslaughter for killing 20-year-old Black motorist Daunte Wright in a shooting that ignited days of unrest and clashes between protesters and police. The charge against former Brooklyn Center police Officer Kim Potter will be filed Wednesday, three days after Wright was killed during a traffic stop and as the nearby murder trial progresses for the ex-officer charged with killing George Floyd last May, Washington County Attorney Pete Orput said. The former Brooklyn Center police chief has said that Potter, a 26-year readmore

LONDON: Leaders from Britain's aviation industry joined forces Wednesday to urge the British government to ensure that popular European destinations face the least onerous coronavirus travel restrictions when holidays are allowed again. Under the government's new traffic light system for England, travel to countries in the lowest green category could be opened up to quarantine-free travel from May 17. Arrivals would be required to take a pre-departure test as well as the gold standard PCR test on or before day two of their return to England. They would only need to quarantine if they receive a positive result. The readmore

ISLAMABAD: A senior Pakistani official has said that the country was working to develop its own single-dose coronavirus vaccine with China's support, a media report said on Wednesday. Executive Director of National Institute of Health (NIH), Major General Aamer Ikram, said this during a briefing to the National Assembly (NA) Standing Committee on National Health Services on Tuesday, The Express Tribune reported. “We are going to make a single-dose vaccine for Covid-19. We conducted the clinical trial of Chinese Covid-19 vaccine CanSinoBio in Pakistan,” he said. Later talking to the media, Ikram said Pakistan was among the first countries readmore

JOHANNESBURG: South Africa's decision to suspend the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine due to preliminary reports of rare blood clots has left the country without any shots as it struggles to combat an aggressive coronavirus variant. South Africa has more than 1.5 million confirmed cases of Covid-19, including at least 53,000 deaths, representing more than 30% of all the confirmed cases in Africa's 54 countries. So far, it has only inoculated 290,00 health care workers, all with the J&J vaccine. South Africa's plans to begin large-scale vaccinations next month are dependent upon deliveries of millions of doses of readmore

WASHINGTON: Vice President Kamala Harris is planning a trip to Mexico and Guatemala as she leads the White House's diplomatic efforts to tackle the migration challenge at the US southern border. Harris told reporters Wednesday that she was "looking forward to traveling, hopefully as my first trip, to the Northern Triangle," with stops in Mexico and Guatemala planned. She said she would go as soon as possible, depending on restrictions put in place for the pandemic. But when asked if she would visit the border, Harris suggested she had no plans to do so, noting that Homeland readmore

BERLIN: Two German men who came up with a pink glove to help women dispose of tampons have sparked a backlash on social media, with critics panning the product as useless and sexist. At a menstrual cramp-inducing 11.96 euros ($14.31) for a pack of 48, the Pinky is a plastic glove that doubles as a disposal bag to provide a "discreet solution for pads and tampons", according to the product website. Andre Ritterswuerden and Eugen Raimkulow, who met in the army, presented their product on Monday on the German version of the Dragons' Den TV show where inventors pitch to potential readmore

LONDON: As the rollout of the Johnson and Johnson coronavirus vaccine has been paused in the United States, the European Union and South Africa, Researchers in Britain investigating the effects of using one coronavirus vaccine for a first dose and another for a second have expanded their trial, they said on Wednesday. According to The New York Times, the mixing and matching doses could help countries weather vaccine supply shortages. The Com-Cov (Comparing Covid-19 Vaccine Schedule Combinations) study led by the University of Oxford began in February using AstraZeneca and Pfizer shots, but on Wednesday the researchers announced that they readmore

NEW YORK: Bernie Madoff, the financier who pleaded guilty to orchestrating the largest Ponzi scheme in history, has died in a federal prison, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Wednesday. Madoff died at the Federal Medical Center in Butner, North Carolina, apparently from natural causes, the person said. The person was not authorised to speak publicly and spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity. Last year, Madoff's lawyers filed court papers to try to get the 82-year-old released from prison in the Covid-19 pandemic, saying he had suffered from end-stage renal disease readmore

COPENHAGEN: Denmark on Tuesday announced it would stop using the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine altogether, becoming the first European country to do so over suspected rare but serious side effects. Despite recommendations from the WHO and European medicines watchdog to continue using the vaccine, "Denmark's vaccination campaign will go ahead without the AstraZeneca vaccine," Danish Health Authority director Soren Brostrom told a press conference.readmore